Debs: His Life, Writings and Speeches, with a Department of AppreciationsDebs, Eugene V. (Eugene Victor)
History
Debs: His Life, Writings and Speeches, with a Department of Appreciations
Debs, Eugene V. (Eugene Victor)
Socialism -- United States; Socialist Party (U.S.)
He testified that he first learned of the Pullman trouble when he
returned from St. Paul, May 5, 1894, and first learned of the strike at
Pullman on May 11. He was asked if the strike was brought on in any way
by his advice, and Mr. Debs replied: “No, it was done contrary to my
advice. I first went to Pullman,” said Mr. Debs in his evidence, “on the
14th of May after the strike occurred, and stayed there part of the day
and an evening. I went again on May 18.” Mr. Debs stated he investigated
conditions at Pullman by inquiry among the employes and their families
and also from other independent sources, including the Rev. Carwardine,
who had been preaching in Pullman for three years. “The result of the
investigation,” said Mr. Debs, “was that I came to the conclusion that
the Pullman Company was in the wrong; that wages had been unjustifiably
reduced below the living point and that rents were much too high in
comparison with what was charged for the same class of dwellings
elsewhere.” He was not permitted by the court to testify as to the
conditions existing among the people at Pullman. Being asked as to the
convention of the A. R. U. held in Chicago, he stated that it was held
June 12, 1894, and that 425 delegates were present from nearly all the
states in the Union, and that newspaper reporters were present at all
meetings of the convention except one executive session, which was
called to consider the financial affairs of the Order and nothing else;
that telegrams sent and received by the A. R. U. were subjected to the
examination of members of the press; that nothing was concealed. He said
the convention voted $2,000 of the funds for the Relief Committee at
Pullman and the money was paid over to them; that the convention voted a
levy of 10 cents a day per capita; that that was not collected because
of the strike that followed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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